China And India

Re "Feinstein, Boxer differ on global warming," Jan. 18 Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) plan is too timid; Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) is better because it supports California's right to lead by example in a very crucial area. That said, neither plan is sufficient. Right now, the people of California need a joint effort by our environmentally aware senators to set in motion a series of events that will in two years have the United States ready to ratify the Kyoto treaty -- and to end China and India's exemption very soon thereafter.

Trying for cooperation instead of competition, the leaders of China and India pledged Tuesday to double trade between the two Asian nations and to step up efforts to resolve a boundary dispute that has embittered their relations for nearly half a century. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emerged from talks here with declarations that the growth of one country did not have to come at the expense of the other.

Re "A Trade Boom's Unintended Costs," April 23 There is nothing "unintended" by these costs; they are plain to anyone who thinks in the larger picture. Our industrial elite exports our manufacturing base to China and India but, in order to get the (cheaper) goods back, they must pay for the transportation to get them to our stores. But who pays for the port expansion, the pollution, the roads and rails and trucks and more pollution? Certainly not the industrialists who reap the original profits.

President Bush's recent call for more visas for skilled foreign workers increases the likelihood that relief is on the way for U.S. technology firms that say they are struggling to fill key positions. In a Feb. 2 speech at the Minnesota headquarters of 3M, the president said it was a "mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who can fill the jobs that are having trouble being filled here in America."

Re "Wages Lagging Behind Prices," April 11: Americans have been receiving lower real wages for the last 14 months. This story used, as examples, only employees in California, and that is a shame. Six months ago, workers, like myself, went to the polls and voted -- for the most reactionary, anti-labor administration in memory, an administration that showed almost zero job growth in four years, a group that thinks nothing is wrong when high-priced jobs are exported to China and India.

As a poor nation struggling to compete in an increasingly globalized economy, Cambodia has little to offer factory owner Leon Hsu. Electricity is erratic. Traffic along the road to the port of Sihanoukville includes the occasional elephant. If a truckload of men's shirts doesn't reach the port on time, it may be days before another vessel departs for Singapore, where goods are transferred to a larger ship for the voyage to the United States.

Regarding James Flanigan's column "The Global Economy's 2-Way Street," Aug. 29: More than 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have evaporated in the last four years, and U.S. industry invested $151 billion overseas last year -- but guess what? Offshore investors invested almost $30 billion in the United States. So that makes everything OK? Two-way street? More like a highway going out, and a donkey path in. Benjamin Cole Los Angeles One thing is certain: Your position as a financial analyst is ripe to be offshored.

It is a pity that "Hunger Gnaws at Ethiopia" (May 19) did not try to address the root causes of recurring hunger in Ethiopia. Lack of rain for a season, or even consecutive seasons, should not necessarily lead to famine. Ethiopia has had the misfortune of bad governance, from a monarchy during whose reign millions lost their lives to a Marxist dictator whose tenure resulted in same. Now we have a prime minister who proudly announces to the world that he will lose maybe "thousands" of his people.

The Aug. 30 headline, "Minorities Become Majority in State, Census Officials Say," is a bit of an understatement, as the figures show that no single ethnic or racial group has a majority in California, thus making us all minorities. On that basis, minorities are not only a majority in California, they make up 100% of the population. Now that we are all minorities, can we get along a little better? MERRITT D. MULLEN Ridgecrest Regardless of composition, California's population is simply too large.